THE opening of a private hospital in Darlington is seen as the reason for a large drop in income for South Durham health care trust.

At the end of June, the trust was in the red by £490,000 after income from private patients, particularly orthopaedic patients, tailed off.

The likely cause is believed to stem from the opening of the Woodlands hospital at Morton Park, though there have been drains on resources elsewhere, including costs for drugs, medical and surgical equipment and home equipment loans.

Additional pressure is having to use expensive locum medical and nursing staff.

At Monday's trust board meeting, Mr Alan Foster, director of finance and information, said: "We are in discussions with regional office and the health authority and are watching the situation very carefully."

Mr John Saxby, chief executive, added: "As Woodlands gets more and more in the swing of things and there is a loss of private patient income, we will need to look at what it will mean to staffing costs.

"It should mean we have extra capacity to deal with NHS patients, but it may be that we don't have the money to do this."

The trust provided a small range of non-clinical services to Woodlands, but could make more if it became an accredited service supplier.

But this would incur further costs with no income guarantees, and could be a fruitless exercise, said Mr Saxby.

The trust was aso required to cut costs by £4m, and a loan of £1.6m has to be repaid to County Durham and Darlington health authority.